Cleveland Botanical Garden's Orchid Show

This past weekend I drove up to Cleveland to spend time with my best friend and celebrate her 30th(!) birthday.  I left the plans totally up to her, wherever she wanted to eat and whatever she wanted to do.  We started off with lunch at a pizza place, just down the street from her new house in Tremont, called Crust.  We decided to share a medium Spanakopita and it was delicious!  Good flavor and the crust was awesome (hence the name, I guess)!

Then when I asked Amanda what she wanted to do next she said, "I thought maybe we could go to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens [which I had never been to and she had only been once before], they are having their orchid show right now".   Umm, what?!  This sounded like an activity for my birthday, not hers!  But I wasn't going to say no to orchids, I mean, we know how much I like love orchids!  But I warned her just how much I was going to geek out...little did I know the vast quantity and variety of orchids the CBG packs into their orchid show!  I think my brain might have exploded from all the orchid-awesomeness.  Just see for yourself, but be prepared for an orchid extravaganza (and this is me editing myself significantly)...

Alright, so while my brain was literally on sensory overload and I couldn't stop saying "Ooh, look at this one!" and "Oh, I really like this one!" Amanda and I nearly poked our eyes/faces out...

In two different areas of their large glass house there were spiky/thorny branches growing out of the rocks right at eye-poking level, it was a bit terrifying!  Luckily we're nerds and wear protective eye-wear daily (and Amanda was looking out for me while I was geeking out over the pretty flowers!  Still, imagine a person holding their child right at their level and the adult looking left to the orchids...WHAM!! Thorn-stabbed!!  That does not seem at all safe.  

Seriously I have never seen so many different kinds of orchids in my life!!  It was magical!  But what made it more magical?!  Tortoises.

 Look at him snacking on that lettuce.  Isn't he so cute!?

Oh yeah, and there were cute, tiny little birds flying around and butterflies!

These were some of Amanda's favorites!  I couldn't really pick a favorite, there were too many!!

Most of the orchids above were scattered throughout the large glass house.  Inside the main building was a separate display of orchids in a variety of room set-ups, some of which were curated by fashion and interior designers.  They were all pretty cool, but I liked this simple display of orchids in ornate picture frames the best...

Whew!!  I warned you.  I went a little overboard, but I left in a euphoric state; blissed out on all the different varieties, colors, sizes, shapes of orchids.  The botanical gardens actually has several outdoor garden areas but since it was snowing we did not get to explore those.  I can't wait to go back sometime when the weather is nice to see the gardens and explore more!

A big thank you to my wonderful hlp, Amanda!  For suggesting the botanical gardens, for putting up with me while I have an irrational freak-out over flowers, and then for not leaving me there because I was acting like a giant dork and taking a photo of every orchid I saw!  Thanks A!  I do have a little more Cleveland goodness in store for you this week, so stay tuned.  And then this weekend I'll be going to the Krohn orchid show and unloading another huge batch of orchid photos on you all...you have been warned!